Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard

09/03/2026

Donald Trump can decide what the federal government calls a body of water. News outlets are a different matter.

Joshua Benton writes for Nieman Lab that “Gulf of America” has not taken hold in news copy outside MAGA media. In fact, “Gulf of Mexico” is increasing its lead.

Even the news sites Republicans prefer have gone back to calling it the Gulf of Mexico most of the time. And the trend line is not in Trump's favor.

09/03/2026

A new Center for Cooperative Media study takes a deep dive into New Jersey’s local news influencers.

Nieman Lab points to the report, which used AI tools, custom code, and interviews to examine relevance to New Jersey audiences, content types, and communication styles.

Nearly half of posts studied, 49.8%, were highly specific to New Jersey. This suggests that creators are making deliberate choices about what to cover, with much of it overlapping with the community-level reporting traditional news outlets have reduced.

News creators are increasingly where people get their news (check out Hanaa's ongoing series of interviews with news creators from around the world) and a new study from the Center for Cooperative Media at Montclair State University takes a deep dive into New Jersey's local news influencers. Usi…

09/03/2026

California lawmakers passed a bill that could generate as much as $40 million a year for the state’s newsrooms.

Hanaa’ Tameez reports for Nieman Lab that AB 2222 creates refundable tax credits for the state's news outlets based on the number of journalists they employ. The bill now heads to Gov. Gavin Newsom.

"If you lay people off, you get less money. If you don't employ anyone, you don't get anything."

09/03/2026

As a comments section becomes more reasoned, it can also become more exclusive.

Avner Kantor and Sheizaf Rafaeli found that information-dense New York Times stories produced sharper, more analytical discussion, but fewer readers participated.

For newsrooms reopening comments, Kantor suggests starting with the harder stories, where more reasoned conversation was most likely to emerge.

The same stories that produced sharper, more analytic conversation also produced less conversation.

09/02/2026

SPJ’s proposed ethics code includes new language around verifying the “provenance and authenticity” of information and sources.

Another revised line tells journalists to “never publish fabricated content that could be confused with reality.”

The committee says “content” was added to better address AI-generated images, graphics, and the misuse of AI in image production.

On Monday, the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ) dropped new proposed revisions to its code of ethics — the first revision to one of the most-cited media ethics standards in the country since 2014. As any Nieman Lab reader knows, journalism has seen drastic changes since 2014. One maj…

09/02/2026

A Wall Street Journal op-ed by billionaire financier Stanley Druckenmiller sparked a debate about AI and opinion writing after NOTUS reporter Jeff Stein called him to ask whether he had used AI. Druckenmiller acknowledged that he had.

Joshua Benton writes for Nieman Lab that what made the episode different was that neither Druckenmiller nor Journal editorial page editor Paul Gigot offered regrets or shame. Gigot said there was no need to disclose the AI use, arguing that “nobody can doubt that his op-ed is his genuine opinion.”

Benton reached out to editors at 24 prominent U.S. newspapers to see if others were following the Journal’s lead. None that he heard from were willing to do so.

Outside The Wall Street Journal, it appears not.

09/01/2026

A decade ago, Joshua Benton wrote that the internet was sucking journalistic resources out of the middle of the country and concentrating them on the coasts, especially New York City.

The pandemic-era rise of remote work might have changed that. But new labor data suggests the trend has accelerated.

By 2025, 8.3% of U.S. newspaper jobs were based in Manhattan.

Benton writes in Nieman Lab about why one of America’s once least centralized industries is increasingly squeezed into a few square miles of Midtown.

Ten years ago, I wrote a piece on how the internet was sucking journalistic resources out of the middle of the country and concentrating it on the coasts — primarily New York City. While digital publishing theoretically could have distributed reporters away from high-cost cities, in reality, it r....

09/01/2026

People who say they trust the press less don’t necessarily consume much less news, David Beavers found.

Using four weeks of web-browsing data from 400 Americans, he found a difference in what they consumed instead: people with lower media trust visited more hyperpartisan sites and more sites known to publish false information or conspiracy theories.

The pattern was especially pronounced among Republicans who said they didn’t trust the media.

Joshua Benton talks with Beavers about the research for Nieman Lab.

🔗: https://www.niemanlab.org/2026/08/is-americans-declining-trust-in-media-driven-by-political-messaging/

08/31/2026

For USA Today Co., “every visit, every session, and every moment of attention creates a signal.”

That’s how CEO Mike Reed described the thinking behind the company’s new partnership with Palantir, whose AI-powered platform will be used to connect and analyze audience data.

The aim, Reed said, is to turn more anonymous interactions into known first-party relationships and use those signals to engage users and monetize them more effectively.

Hanaa’ Tameez reports for Nieman Lab.

USA Today Co. has made a deal with software company Palantir to analyze and monetize user behavior, the company announced on Thursday. In its Q2 earnings call Thursday morning, USA Today Co. chairman and CEO Mike Reed told investors he expects the partnership to "strengthen how we collect, …

08/31/2026

Public media’s funding crisis is pushing stations toward mergers and collaboration.

WHYY is set to take on Penn State’s WPSU, pending FCC approval. GBH and New England Public Media merged in May. Rocky Mountain Public Radio plans to acquire Community Radio for Northern Colorado.

The Public Media Bridge Fund says it is reviewing about 20 applications for collaborations, mergers, and other cooperative agreements.

🔗: https://www.niemanlab.org/2026/07/its-been-a-year-since-congress-cut-off-federal-funding-for-public-media-how-are-things-going/